Marksman
by Lyranfan
Summary: A background story to the medal Time Agent Daniels gives to Jonathon Archer on the deck of the EnterpriseJ.


Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to the Star Trek phenomenon – Paramount does.

This takes place on board the Enterprise-J during the final battle between the Federation and the sphere builders.

**Marksman – a Star Trek: ****Enterprise**** story – Single chapter**

She ran the halls at her best speed, hoping she would be the first. She discovered during the last lifeform scan there were two other Insectoids like her on the ship – a last minute surprise she hadn't counted on. The scan was intended to find sphere builders – not other Xindi. She had earned this honor more then they did. She was determined to be the one.

Other crew members jumped out of her way - the vision of running, screeching Insectoid scared even the most battle hardened of them. Her reputation as weapons officer and champion hand to hand combat competitor preceded her. A heavily armed security team gave her plenty of room as she turned a corner.

There was an important battle about to begin and surely she was on her way to the bridge.

* * *

Captain H'Varkid shouted, "Forward shields to maximum, ready quantum torpedoes, 2.5 second delay spread!" The Bajoran ensign at Tactical punched in the commands quickly, just like her Insectoid supervisor taught her. She responded, "Aye Sir. We're ready." When it wasn't the voice he expected, the Andorian captain did a double take and asked, "Where is my Insectoid sure shot?"

"She asked for me to be on shift last minute. I thought the attack was later." This isn't what he needs to hear. Okay – just like you practiced. Ensign N'varta said with as much confidence she could muster, "Sir, I can do this."

The captain grunted and thought:I hope by the Great Glacier you can.: He turned back to the main viewer and commanded, "Fire at the main hull, not the engines. Now."

* * *

She burst into the observation desk. The view of space, her home space, being distorted still shocked her no matter how many times she saw it. Before her lay the murky brown swirling expanse, not the rich black background it was supposed to be.

She was just in time to see the alien ship in the background take a full barrage of torpedoes. It was up to the ensign she trained to deal with the Intruders here. Her business right now was with the fiends from a long time ago.

She snapped out her trance and spotted Daniels as he appeared out of nowhere. It was obvious he was not expecting her.

She asked quickly, "Has anyone else seen you yet?" Even with the advanced translators, the Insectoid language took a while to convert to Federation Standard. He simply shook his head no.

She grilled him again, "Has the Archer unit been here yet?"

Daniels walked towards the Insectoid asking, "How did you know…"

She didn't wait for him to finish. "You need something from this era for him."

Daniels pounded his temporal padd. There was no mention of an Insectoid time agent in his briefing. What was she doing here?

She went on. "The historical records state you give him something from a Xindi."

She extended her hunting claw and raked at her shoulder, starting a crease in her exoskeleton. Daniels watched in horror as she continued to pull at the split across her thorax and the cracking sound caused a shiver down his spine. Then the overpowering stench of her internal organs hit him and almost knocked him out.

He could see her breathing become labored as she peeled the medal from the shard of her exoskeleton.

She fell to her knees but managed to slide the piece she pulled off towards him. "The medal…. give it…. to Archer unit…. He needs it…. to convince… Council." Then she fell to the floor and hoped she would remain awake long enough to see the captain of the ancient Enterprise.

Two other Insectoids entered the room from the hallway, and when they spotted the first, they rushed to her side. One spoke and asked, "She gave you the medal? The object you need?"

Dumbfounded by what he just witnessed, he nodded yes. Daniels knew he needed to get a medal – he just didn't expect it to cause harm to a crewmember.

He began to punch in 'crack exoskeleton' on his temporal database, when one of the new Insectoids said, "The sacrifice is an ancient tradition. A sister cracks her armor when a nest of young is threatened by an Avian hunting party. One of us gives her life for the good of the hatchlings – the Avians could not resist the aroma of fresh meat. A single adult was food enough to hold off attacks for another week – so the nest could relocate to a new hiding spot."

The pair lifted the first and said, "We will assist her to sickbay. Give our regards to the Archer unit." Daniels put his best game face on and prepared to talk to Jonathon, who would not be happy to be here.

Outside in the hallway, one Insectoid produced a hypo from her medkit, knocking out the injured Weapons officer. The other picked up a small box with a preformed section of artificial exoskeleton – something not invented in this time frame yet. "She's so brave, I'm glad we got a chance to meet her." A quick medscan showed the preform was a good fit. As the unit's glue adhered to the weapons officer's armor, the medic looked at the doors to where Daniels was now speaking to Archer.

She asked, "Is there nothing we can do for the Daniels unit?" Her companion answered, "We've interfered enough. His fate is already decided."

The medic ran the scan one more time and said, "She'll be fine. We should go now." They stood and disappeared, returning to their own timeline.

* * *

On the bridge, the Science officer shouted, "I'm getting a chronoton alert on Deck 15 – multiple signals! Localized to forward viewing bay."

The Andorian captain barked his orders quickly, "Security teams Gamma and Delta report to Deck 15 observation deck – take no prisoners!"

Damn time traveling sphere builders trying to sabotage his ship. Not on his watch. Time travel mechanics was his worst subject in the academy but that didn't stop him from leading the charge here in this key battle.

At Tactical, Ensign N'varta reported, "Next set of quantum torpedoes ready."

Captain H'Varkid smiled:At least, something was going right.: "On my mark,…..fire."

On the display screen, a stream of torpedoes traced a line towards the Intruder dreadnought hull. One by one the lights flared on impact then disappeared. It was followed by a barrage of phaser fire. A crease started on the lower armor plate, which grew into a large split and then the ship exploded. The Enterprise-J continued turning right, setting its sights on a sphere builder cruiser.

The Security team leader reported in, "We found R'Chr, no sphere builders. She appears injured and we're transporting her to Sickbay now."

The Andorian slammed the comm button with his fist. H'Varkid sneered at the cruiser being pursued now, "If you thought I was angry before, wait till you see this!" He looked up at Ops and he saw she was ready. "Fire... Now!"

* * *

The Insectoid lay on the medlab cot, viewing the recording of the battle. The Bajoran stood to the side at attention. The replay of the Intruder dreadnought explosion was paused as the R'Chr tapped a claw on the screen.

"You did well." It was great praise from the normally silent Tactical Ops senior officer.

The Bajoran ensign nodded, "I had a good teacher." It was impossible to see when an Insectoid 'smiled', but R'Chr had a tell for when she was pleased - her pinky claw would tap, like it was doing now. Poker was a skill N'varta was glad she mastered since arriving on Enterprise.

The medlab doors opened and Captain H'Varkid strode in. "You two need to let me in on what's going on." They tried their best to look innocent, but he insisted, "I know something is going on. Tell me now."

R'chr told the story she had practiced. It wasn't a lie but it wasn't all of the truth.

The Insectoid and Bajoran waited patiently while the Andorian captain stood deep in thought. "So your section chief asked you to fill in for her at the last minute. But you have no reason why."

The ensign was still standing at attention and looked at her supervisor lying on the medlab cot, who tilted her head as a signal it was ok to answer. "Yes, sir that's correct."

As he paced around the medcot, the captain asked, "And you didn't think to question that."

H'Varta responded, "No, sir. I didn't think it was my place."

His antenna twitched and suddenly he muttered, "Thank you. That is all."

She turned to go and as the medical bay doors opened, he called out, "By the way, Ensign, nice shooting."

She managed a weak smile, saying "Thank you, sir." She couldn't shake the feeling she should have stayed to defend the Insectoid, but she had strict instructions from R'Chr to leave when the Captain asked her to.

He took a deep breath and glared at the Insectoid. He gruffly asked, "Explain yourself."

She felt bad about deceiving her commanding officer, but it had been worth it. She had been the one.

She decided he needed to know the truth. "Do you know the story of the Jonathon Archer unit, the human captain of the Enterprise prototype before the Federation was created?"

He nodded – what grade school student within the Federation didn't.

She continued, "When he was in this region of space, he helped a small group of Insectoid hatchlings survive until another Insectoid ship could arrive to lend assistance. I am a sister descendant of the Insectoids saved by him. After learning that I am alive because of him, I researched the meaning of his name. It made sense it would be a job I devoted myself to – Archer – weapons officer – soldier of the Federation army. I even changed my name in his honor. He has something from this era to prove to the Xindi Council that they must work with the Humans - not destroy them. I provided that item."

He glanced at her shoulder, noting the exoskeleton was damaged but intact. The doctor described what she did to the Captain – it just all seemed so barbaric. Insectoids glued their medals to their hardened skin – a matter of pride that the honor was something that could not be taken from them.

But he could tell this was important to her by her tone. And it wasn't that long ago that other members of the Federation viewed the Andorians and their honored traditions as the barbaric ones.

The captain strutted back and forth, mulling over these facts and his pace increased. She knew his anger was justified. She was not there on the bridge when needed in his eyes.

His antenna shifted towards her. "I should bust you back to cadet and send you back to the Academy."

She survived once before, living amongst others who feared her and distrusted her – a member of one of the traitorous races of the Xindi that almost succeeded in destroying Earth with the Doomsday weapon. She had hoped her sacrifice would offset that betrayal.

All those lonely hours in the simulators and on the firing ranges, perfecting her weaponry skills. Being apart from others was hard on an Insectoid used to the close companionship of Hive living. The time spent alone had been worth it.

She could do it again – endure the distrustful looks and sneers. Nothing mattered now. She had been the one. And she had survived somehow.

He took a deep breath and said, "If you can teach a peace loving Bajoran to fire a torpedo spread like that, you should be teaching marksmanship at the Academy."

* * *

Ensign N'varta entered her cabin and saw she had a message from her grandmother. Personal vids were tolerated during wartime as long as the length was limited; responses were allowed if kept short also.

"Computer, play latest message." Her grandmother appeared in her traditional priestess garb as she spoke, "I hope you are safe during this battle. Remember what I told you."

She hit the record button and looked into the camera lens. "Dearest Mamou, I am well. It appears your illustrious visions from the Prophets were right and I promise not to doubt you again. I was on the bridge when it happened. I was the one."

* * *

Author's note: This is my first story outside of the X-Men:Evolution genre. I decided to dip my toe into stranger waters.

I was not a big fan of the Xindi arc the first time around – it was really too far outside of the timeline from the original series. I liked it better with a second viewing – but there were too many details that just didn't fit.

One detail that caught my ear was the medal Daniels gives Archer on the Enterprise-J. I've tried to find a transcript of the episode but no luck. If I remember correctly, it was an aboriginal Xindi who offered up the medal. I took artistic license and made it an Insectoid.


End file.
